Bankers’ Eye View of CRE

The nation’s banks, while still clearly unenthusiastic about commercial real estate, are finally acknowledging that CRE markets have hit a hard rocky bottom. A handful even says they are re-loaded and ready to resume lending.

That is largely the view expressed in fourth quarter bank earnings statements and conference calls, including the nation’s nine largest banks. While their comments anecdotally substantiate that the worst of the recession for CRE has past, it’s also clear that many don’t see better days just around the corner.

Demand for loans also was reportedly mixed with the more well funded players returning to the banking well. Overall, though, it appeared that new lending was not keeping up with loan resolutions and CRE loan amounts outstanding continued to shrink and still could for a few more quarters.

From here on out in this report, we’ll let bank executives do the talking.